Remember the metaverse? — Microsoft Teams does, and it's rebooting virtual meetings with immersive events

Before AI became the biggest buzzword in tech, hype surrounded the metaverse. Tech giants raced to roll out virtual environments that allowed people to interact digitally or mix virtual reality and actual reality.

Facebook was so committed to the concept that its parent company rebranded to Meta in 2021.

The metaverse isn't talked about nearly as much now that the global pandemic has ended, many people have returned to offices, and in-person meetings have come back. Tech companies also shifted their focus to AI, which seems to have stuck more than the metaverse ever did.

That being said, the metaverse is still around, and Microsoft has a new feature for it. Immersive events in Microsoft Teams are now available in public preview.

Immersive events are virtual meetings designed to promote interaction. They support features like spatial audio that allow you to chat and have casual side conversations.

The spatial features are key, since casual conversations are often lost in virtual meetings. A lot of networking and coordination get done when people just talk rather than presenting or attending a meeting side-by-side.

"Co-presence often leads to spontaneous conversations and deeper connections from sharing experiences," explains Microsoft. "Immersive events in Teams help you focus on what matters: people, conversations, and a unique shared space."

Each user has a virtual avatar that's used to attend events. When you join a meeting for the first time, you'll be given the chance to customize your avatar. Hosts can also customize the space without having to code.

Microsoft Teams has supported virtual meetings for a while, but immersive events build on the concept. While the immersive space view in Teams meetings only supports 16 attendees, immersive events can have more people.

Over time, immersive events will replace the Immersive Space view within Teams.

Immersive events can be attended by users on a PC, Mac, or a Meta Quest headset, though the latter requires the Teams immersive app.

Organizing immersive events requires Teams Premium, but you do not need to have that plan to attend virtual meetings set up through the feature.

Microsoft outlines the steps to create an immersive event in a support document:

1. Select Calendar   in Teams.
2. Select the dropdown arrow next to New event.
3. Select Immersive event  .
4. In the scheduling form, add event details, co-organizers, and attendees.
5. Select an Immersive experience template. This will be the ready-to-use 3D space for your event and can't be changed after the event is saved.
6. Select Save and send invites  . Event invites will be sent to you and co-organizers, and the event will appear in your Teams calendars.
7. Select Event invitation to customize the banner image in attendee email invites.
8. Select Publish to send event invites to attendees. Event invites contain event info and join links attendees will use to enter the event.

Three different environments are available for immersive events: Cascades, Oasis, and Canvas.

Cascades is a virtual stage with tiered seating. That area is ideal for presentations, but there is also a social area within Cascades set up with icebreaker activities and conversation prompts.

Oasis is a virtual conference room for larger team meetings. Canvas is a purposefully plain room designed to have creators and hosts customize the space.